Reviews by Kookiekwan:

This beer pours black has a thin filmy almost non-existant head, with very little retention. The aroma is of roasted coffee/toffee with a hint of butterscotch. The flavor is sweet roasted coffee, very smooth mouthfeel. Even though its only 4.8% I could still taste the alcohol in the finish.

More User Reviews:

Nice very dark brown color with slight red highlights. Creamy frothed milk tan head. Thick clouds of lace, stick in large sheets. Slight sense of sherry to the aroma, bits of chocolate, and a hint at a roast. Lightish mouthfeel, carbonation is subdued, milky feel across the tongue. Solid roast to the flavor, bitter and mildly oily, coffee is well-expressed. Wine-like overtones, similarities to Fuller's London Porter in many aspects. Nice drinker, easy to throw back with nice dark notes to add further interest.

Not a bad brew, but a bit disappointing. Pours balck with a small chunky head. Smell was light with coffee and malt aromas discernible. Taste was mild, malty, with some medicial qualities. Tartness in teh aftertatste. Mouthfeel is light, with a refrteshing quality. Drinkability is fine, no doubt due to teh lower abv. Not bad, but not spectacular.

Pours deep, dark maroon with black tints. Thin but creamy head with a ton of gooey lace.
Aroma is slightly peaty and roasted barley hit with some french vanilla coffe and a biscuity note.
Flavor is light chocolate upfront moving to a flaked barley finish. Simple yet satisfying.
Mouthfeel is semi-sweet to start moving to a dry but somewhat thin middle and finishing wiht a roasted hit.
Drinkability is decent but nothing special.

16.9 poured into a pub glass.
Very little head here, enough for a porter, though. Head is the color of chocolate milk.
The beer is not quite black. Almost, except for a ruby tint.
Smells sweet and very malty. Chocolate malts create a strong coffee note, bitter nose from the choc. malt but no hop aromas at all.
The first few sips taste too sweet. Porter should be sweet but a lingering, sticky-sweet aftertaste is what I'm getting. It mellows well though, to a decent balance of malt and an oaky, coffee-bitter and spicy hop (though faint).
Mouth feel left a lot to be desired. Thick but not creamy. the amount of unfermented malt leaves the beer syrupy.
A slow sipper, this is fairly drinkable but set aside an hour to do so.
A moderately satisfying porter but tastes and feels a bit raw to me.

FLAVOR: The sherry nose is also present in the flavor, but its a lot nicer than I thought it would be. Almost has a Cab Svgn. quality to it. Chocolate is much stronger here. Subtle roastiness, but overpowered a bit by the somewhat sour notes in front. Caramel comes through as the beer warms a bit, as does espresso. Black malt is present only in the finish, leaving a slightly bitter/sour aftertaste, but all that does for me is make me want another sip.

MOUTHFEEL: Low carbonation, medium-high weight. Nice full feeling in the mouth, as well as being somewhat oily/slick.

DRINKABILITY: At 4.8% its pretty close to a session beer, and darned flavorful at that.

OVERALL COMMENTS: A good solid beer overall. If you like red wine and chocolate, and dont care for hops, this might be right up your alley. I kinda miss the hops a little, though but thats just me.

Pours with a one-finger light tan head that fades slowly leaving a good lace. Deep amber color almost black. Good carbonation and light-medium bodied. Nose is chocolate. Starts with a sweetish molasses flavor, finish is slightly bitter chocolate. $4.25 for a 500ml bottle from Colonial Spirits Acton, MA..

500 ml wide bottle with no bottling date indicated.
It pours a dark, almost opaque , brown color with a mocha head that withers to a thin layer after a few minutes. There is some, but minimal, lacing on the glass.
The nose gives a strong, ripe fruit aroma of prunes lightly mixed with coffee and chocolate. The aroma has a certain sweetness to it that gives an icecream like sensation. It has a rich, full mouthfeel that continues the ripe fruit flavor, again predominantly of prunes with minimal roastiness. Hoppiness is restrained, just enough to balance the sweet, malt presence. The finish is delingtfully smooth.

This is a very drinkable Porter with wonderfull ripe fruit aromas and flavor. The mouthfeel is full and thick, a bit surprising for a 4.8% ABV ale. I enjoyed mine after dinner, and it made a wonderful desert.

I enjoyed this from a bottle called Tom Paines Original Old Porter. Poured to a used motor oil black, with medium tan head that dissipated soon and left some lacing. Aroma was a strong and pleasant malt chocolate-caramel that lasted for most of the drink. Flavor was a very tasty mix of malt chocolate, caramel, vanilla and a hint of coffee. This all led to a well rounded finish that was long, almost a little too sweet, and very warming for a beer with only 4.8% abv.

A- Pours a fluffy light tan head about 1.5 fingers in head. It leaves some lacing on its way down. The body is brown with dark ruby highlights.

S- Almost a creme brulee like nose. Big caramel, vanilla, large fresh roasted coffee, dark roasted malts, and a touch of smoke.

T- Starts out with an almost tart dry chocolate and bitter hop component then moves into a slight chocolate and residual hop finish. This is very much, like the name implies, an old english porter, but it didn't have to much character to me.

M- Very smooth with low carbonation.

D- It's to bad the taste wasn't as good as the rest of this beer as it'd be pretty sessionable. As it is though, I probably wouldn't have it again. I could see this being much better fresh.

a winking lizard tour beer that's been hanging out for some time
nice, stout bottle with a pic of good old time paine

it's a solid looking brew. totally opaque black with a khaki head that retains itself well, releasing scents of molasses, licorice and a hint of the soy sauce aroma that suggests some passage of time. ever-so-slightly spicy as well. the flavors are dark and sophisticated, with a smoky finish to the smooth (but light, actually) mouthfeel. no hop flavor but some apparent bitterness for balance

Presentation: 500ml broad bodied brown glass bottle with a thin short stubby neck. The main label has a picture of Thomas Paine set against a black and gold background. Tom Paine was an English radical by birth who eventually went on, so the legend goes, to assist in drafting the American Declaration of Independence and was to eventually die in the USA. Labeled as Harveys Tom Paine Original Old Porter, and listed at 4.8% ABV. No freshness date.

Appearance: A very dark brown body when backlit which becomes a dark black when it is not. A decent enough ½ light brown tan head slowly evolves and forms on the pour, but it eventually settles to a thin looking cap covering  but never breaks and is always uniform, and it does leave some nice looking lacing. Extremely finely dissolved carbonation remains firm start to finish.

Taste: A mixture of milky chocolate and fantastic flashes of sourness throughout. Dark freshly roasted coffee and some raisins here and there. Predominantly though, this Porter is all about the rum sourness, it is never over the top, or even off-putting  and it will not be to everyones taste - but somehow it lends a lovely Olde Worlde feel to this libation.

Mouthfeel: Smooth yet definitively Porter-esque in character. Above average feel is bolstered by the sourness and lots of roasted malts; all supported by a caffeine like injection from the coffee flavors.

Drinkability: Seemingly refined, yet harking back to a time when things were simplistic. Works well for me; the sourness is welcome and adds to the overall quaffability.

Overall: How things used to be. Well worth seeking out, but dont expect the usual low profile bland offering, this one does not shy away from keeping the sourness where it should be, but it blends it impressively into a worthy English Porter.

This is definitely an English Porter Old-School style ..and I loved it. Recommended.

Poured into pint glass.
No head to speak of, very disappointing. Black body, looked very smooth.
Smell of a bit of coffee and roasted malt, some chocolate
Taste of coffee, roasted malt and powder cocoa.
Thinner than it looked. Flavors were weak and aftertaste of alcohol spoiled the flavors that were present.

Black with amber hues showing through. The head is a tiny layer of cream colored bubbles.
The aroma is sweet with a bit of chocolate.
Its flavor is roasty with tones of chocolate, toffee and coffee in the mix.
Mouth feel is full bodied, a bit syrupy but remains smooth with a dry finish.
This is one of the better imported porters that I have tried.

In conclusion...
After three "Tom Paine" brews I think I have a beat on the set. These are old-tyme, sweet, though balanced, low-acid beers for codgers with delicate palates and a tolerance for funk.
This porter delivers a murky, sweaty coffee and dirt bouquet before rolling over the palate with oily, tar pit crud flavors that are a real treat. There is never an edge - only unashamed, bowels-of-the-earth iron, iodine and sludge flavors. Lots of roasted walnut wood, soot and branch flavors are varnished with an unspeakable smoothness... almost like... mocha gelatine.
live this porter. it makes sierra nevada porter taste like Burger King coffee.

Thin tan head, dark, dark coffee body. Head reduces to wisps quickly. Dark rich nose with dried figs, raisins, and an warm milk. Very nice. Chocolate, some toffee, and coffee with a splash of heavy cream. Bitterness seems to be mainly from the black malt. Relatively thin body for a beer this flavor dense, but carbonation is light enough so that this doesnt seem awkward.

This is what I like in a porter, not too big. Carbonation is a little too light, but overall this is quite good. I hope to come across this again, but Michigan is a little far to go for it!

This is a great porter. It looks good, with an opaque brackish brown body accented with ruby edges. It smells great, with vanilla, brown sugar, cream, and nuts. It tastes good, with cocoa, coffee, and tart fruits. Even a little peppermint. Nice. The mouthfeel is good, nothing too special. But nice. The drinkability is great, with a reasonable ABV and a medium body making it refreshing and sessionable.

Not bad, but for the effort they put into making an authentic 19th century porter, with an original recipe etc, I was hoping for something that stands out a bit more. The weakest of the Tom Paine line (the Brown Ale is delicious though).